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. J. SGHONBERG.

HATGHWAY COVERING 0R DOOR. N0; 351,467. f Patented Oct. 26, 1886.

v a O a a; A 0 0 g 1. I 3 A o 0 C0 g a 1 I 1 V/ g UNITED STATES PAETENT OFFICE.

JAMES SOHONBERG, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR ONE-HALF TO EDWARD WESTON HUNT, OF SAME PLACE.

HATCHWAY COVERING oR oooR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 351,467, dated October 26, 1886.

Application filed December 2, 1885. Serial No. 184,524. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMEs SCHONBERG, of

the city, county, and State of New York, have scription thereof.

The object of this invention is to provide a covering or door for hatchway or similar openings in a floor or roof with such operative mechanism as will permit the door to be opened or closed by the proper manipulation of asingle operating rope or cord,which may readily be conducted into the office of the building in which these improved hatchway-coverings are in use, or to any other suitable station whence the same may be operated, and the mechanism is so constructed and arranged that a single rope or cord with suitable branch*ropes attached thereto can be made to operate all of the doors or covers for the several floors through which the hatchway extends.

Other peculiar features of this invention and of the details and essential characteristics thereof will be hereinafter fully explained.

The invention will be readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, of which Figure 1 is a front sectional elevation of a hatchway-opening extending up through the roof, and which is provided with these improved doors or coverings. Fig. 2 is a transverse. sectional elevation of the same. Fig. 3 shows a modified form of the roof-door. Fig. 4 is a detailed front elevation of the sliding follower and its hinged connection with the door or covering-piece. Fig, 5 is a sectional transverse elevation of the said sliding follower and its hinged connection-with the door.

The several floors or roof through which the hatchway is .formed are each provided with a door or doors, A A, which are each connected with an operating cord or rope, G, by which they are drawn into an opened -position or into a closed-position, as the case may be, the said operating-rope acting to draw the door into either the one or the other position, according to its arrangement for the one pur pose or the other, and then on releasing the said operating-rope the door, by its own gravity or by the action of an added. weight, is allowed to return automatically to its other position. I

The doors A, which are fitted to the floors of abuilding, differ only from the doorA, which is fitted to the roof, in this, that the floor-doors are made to move into a vertical position above their respective horizontal positions when they are opened, and below the horizontal position in the case of the roof-door,

.of course modifying the operating mechanism only to such an extent as to produce these results.

The floor-door A, in its horizontal position, rests on ways a, which arefitted to and supported in the frame-work at the sides of the hatchway-opening, These way-pieces do not extend quite across the hatchway-opening, a small space, a, being left at one side of the hatchway-opening, at the ends of the said way-pieces,

for the purpose of allowing any dust or obstruction resting upon the top or working face of the said way-pieces to be pushed 0% by the door as it slides or runs along on the said ways.-

The front corners of the door A are provided with sheaves or rollers (6 which rest on and roll along on the ways a when the said door is moved over or withdrawn from the hatchway-opening, thereby reducing the frictional resistance to the moving of the door laterally on its said ways.

One edge of the door or cover A is hinged by a compound hinge, O 0 G to a slidingfollower-piece, D,which moves vertically up and down in the ways E. The upper edge of the said follower-piece D is hinged or jointed to the lower ends of a pair of diagonal lockingbars, F, made somewhat in the form of the letter V, and pivoted together at the point of their intersection by the piv0t-pin f. The upper ends of these locking-bars are connected .by links or equivalent connections f f with sheaves or rollers, g g, is conducted down into the office of the building, or to any other desired station, where it can easily be operated or controlled by any authorized person, or kept under such surveillance as is deemed desirable. Where two or more doors or covers are employed to protect a corresponding number of hatchways, suitable branch ropes are used to connect each door with the main line or cord G. The mechanism of these parts D F D is such, as is clearly shown in Fig. i, that when the follower D is raised up by its actuatingcord G, the links or attachments ff draw the two upper ends of the lockingbars F slightly toward each other and away from theirwaysE; butwhen the follower Dand its attached locking-bars F drop down the upper ends of the said locking-bars fall outwardly from each other, and automatically drop into notches e 6, formed in the adjacent faces of the way-pieces E to receive them, and by engaging in the said notches e e the locking-bars F, pressing as their lower ends do on the follower-piece D, and through it on the door A, form an automatic lock for holding the hatchway door down, and thus acting as a burglar-proof lock for the said door, for it can only then be opened by raising the upper follower, D, and the surreptitious raising of this can only be accomplished by gaining access to the operatingcord G, which (to provide against this contingency) is housed in or covered in some way (not shown) to prevent unauthorized manipulat-ion. The door A, therefore, when closed, and the cord G once slackened, is automatically locked closed by the lockingbars F. The front corners of the hatch-door, to render the locking complete, runs under clamping-plates a, which hold the front edge of the said door down when it is closed, so that it cannot be raised up.

The hinge by which the door A is attached to its follower-piece D is formed of three parts or leaves, C O 0 which are joined and pivoted together, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, so as to form a three-part hinge, the outer leaves, 0 and C of which fold in opposite directions upon the central part, 0, thus permitting the changes of position existing between the door A and its operating-follower D as the door is placed in either its closed or its open position, as shown, respectively, in the full and the dotted lines of Fig. 2. This compound hinge readily combines the door A with the sliding follower D in such a manner as to render practical the relative positions of the said door and follower at the closed or horizontal position of the door, and also at the vertical or open position of the said door, in which last position it is placed entirely outside of the hatchwayopening, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2, thus leaving the entire opening clear, and it also accommodates itself and its attached door and follower to all the intermediate positions required between the said limits of its motion.

The upper door, A, which is intended to cover the hatchway-opening in the roof,wl1ich is frequently required, differs from the floordoorA only in this, that it is required to move down in opening, instead of up, as in the case of the floor-door, and of course with such adaptations of operating mechanism as required to produce this result. In this case the sheaves a, on which the door rests on its ways A are placed in the central part of the door, so as to form a kind of central pivotal support on which the door is supported, and about which it partially rotates as it is moved from its vertical to its horizontal position, and vice versa. The ways A, on which the door rests when it is in its closed position, slope downwardly toward the side at which the door opens,as shown in Figs. 2 and 3,and they may be either straight sloping bars attached at both their ends, as in Fig. 3, or slightly curved and attached at only one of their ends, as in Fig. 2. Either of these forms of construction is considered the full equivalent of the other. The rear edge of the door A is, connected by a hinge, O O G, to the sliding follower D, which slides up and down in the before-mentioned ways E, and an attached cord, G, is connected with it and operated in a manner similar to that above described for the cord G, or it may be coupled with the said cord G. The closed and open positions of the door- A are respectively shown by the full and the dotted lines in Fig. 2. In case the door A should have no roof or covering over it, it must be made water tight, and its closed position formed at suchan angle of inclination as will be required to throw OK the rain-water, and its edges covered with weather-strips a In case the hatchway-openings are very wide, the doors or coverings may be made in two parts or folds arranged to open at two sides of the hatchway, instead of only at one side, as herein shown and described.

Having described my invention, I claim 1. A hatchway-door arranged to slide horizontally over a hatchway-opening by means of an operating-follower hinged to one of its sides, and provided with a locking-bar which automatically engages with afixed support on the closing of the door,so as to automatically lock the door as soon as it is closed.

2. The combination of two or more hatchway-doors with one operating-rope leading from them through a closed housing or tubing into the office or other station fromwhich the opening is alone controlled.

3. A vertically -sliding follower for operating a hatchway-door, consisting of two follower-bars, D D, arranged to slide up and down in suitable vertical ways, E, and coupled together by a pair of V- shaped links, F, pivoted together by the pin f at their intersection, and having short coupling-linksffi, for connecting them to the upper follower-piece, D, so as to allow the upper ends of the link-pieces F to swing laterally outward as soon as they are released from tensional strain,th ereby permitting their said upper ends to automatically IIO . engage in the'locking-notches e on the way- 5. The compound hinge GU0 in combinapieces E,substantially as shown and described. tion with the sliding hinged door A and the I 4. Adoor,A,coupled byacompound double operating follower D, substantially as deacting hinge,0 0 0 ,130 avertically-sliding fol scribed.

5 lower, I), so that the follower, by being moved up or down, may push or draw the said door JAMES SOHONBERG. into a horizontal position on suitable ways prepared to receive it in that position, or into Witnesses: a vertical position outside of its closed orhori- M. RANDOLPH,

x0 zontal position, substantially as described. W. P. PULIs. 

